Is it safe for me to eat tofu instead of meat while I'm breastfeeding?!
Answers:
Tofu is safe to eat.
It's just not good to use as an infant formula.
If you want to be extra safe, eat seitan.
It's a good meat substitute that is soy free. It's made from wheat gluten. You can cook it with barbecue sauce or curry.
You can find it at an Asian market or whole food store/health food store.
Rice and beans is also good for protein, if you don't want to eat soy. And so is peanut butter and jelly.
You can also take mutli-vitamins, in order to make sure your baby is getting all the B vitamins.
DEVA vegan vitamins can be purchased on Amazon.com. A 6 month supply is currently $14.45
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B…
Vegetarian
Soy really isn't good for babies. It's been tied to early puberty in girls and affects the thyroid of babies and adults. (Tofu is soy, you know).
http://www.thyroid-info.com/articles/soy…
If you're not eating some sort of animal products on a regular basis, be sure you're taking a good B12 supplement. If you're not passing B12 (and calcium, etc.) on to your baby in your breastmilk, the baby could pay for it later in life. Here are some problems babies of vegan mothers had (this link is from a vegan registered dietitian, BTW):
http://www.veganhealth.org/b12/apinfants
It is safe but it usually not anadequate source of protein for a baby. talk to your doctor about other ways to get protein.